ONCE THEY CAME
WITH SWEETS
AND GIFTS...
Some time ago the Portuguese colonialists had created a special service of propaganda, called Psycho-social Services,
whose task was to go from village to village, especially in
the war zones, and try to convince the people that the Portuguese are good people, that they * are not the criminals
FRELIMO says they are, and that besides the Portuguese
are strong, rich and powerful - and thus it is a mistake
to dare to fight against them. That campaign was undertaken
by relatively large groups of rich society women, members of
the Women's National Movement, who decided to give up
their social meetings and parties a few days each month and
fulfil «the patriotic duty» of «giving their contribution to the
salvation of Portugal)). They were prepared for the campaign
by specialists or 'he Psycho-Social Action who told them what
exactly to do. Those groups would arrive at a village under
heavy escort of Portuguese troops. The population was
gathered in one place and the work started. Someone
(usually one of the ((specialists))) would make a speech
warning the population against the «bandits of FRELIMO who
want to deviate us from the way of progress and peace))
because «this progress and this peace can only be achieved
under the Portuguese flag. Do you understand? Those
who detach themselves from Portuguese protection are suffering war and hunger)). «We are all brothers, all Portuguese))
etc. After the speech which the people were supposed to
applaud, the women would distribute gifts: sweets for the
children, mirrors, beads. At the end, then, a film would be
shown. A film in the bush is obviously very impressive -
to people who have never seen one before.
So the Psycho-Social Services would organise the transport
of a generator and projector for 16 mm films. Of course
the film showed Portuguese troops marching, tanks, bombers,
warships, and also invariably one white man embracing a
black man. «Do you see)), one of the organisers would say,
«we are not racists, we treat you like brothers)).
After one of these groups had left, the guerrillas re-entered
the village. Some of them mingling among the crowd or
hidden in the high grass, had seen the film. And the meaning
of the visit of the colonialist group was then explained to
our people by the political commissar of the region. «The
Portuguese have brought today sweets to our children, gifts
for the women, they tell us that they are our brothers - why?
The Portuguese are afraid of losing the riches of Mozambique,
which belong to the Mozambican people and which they are
20
exploiting. The Portuguese today are afraid of us because they
see our struggle developing. And as they know that our
struggle is popular, is carried out by the people, they try to
convince the people not to fight - either by frightening them
(as you can see through films with pictures of their military
equipment they have shown), or by trying to convince us
that they are good people (as demonstrated by the «gifts»
they left). If there was no struggle, the Portuguese would
continue to ignore us completely. Therefore, this visit of
the colonialist group shows that we are on the right way -
they are already afraid - and that we must intensify more
and more the armed struggle until the total liberation of
our country)). The people, understanding this, reaffirmed
their determination to continue the struggle. Thus this
activity of the Portuguese, aimed at alienating the people from
the struggle was used to advantage by us as a means of mobilising our people. Indeed after some time the Portuguese
recognised that they had no success with this method and
gave it up, dissolving the Psycho-Social Services as an autonomous department and integrating its «specialist)) staff
in the  PIDE.
Since then the principal means of propaganda used by the
Portuguese is the radio and the distribution of pamphlets.
They opened new radio stations, one of them in Nampula
in northern Mozambique, transmitting several hours a day
in Portuguese and in Mozambican languages. It was from
here that the traitor Lazaro Kavandame used to speak to the
people, advising them to lay down the arms and return to
the Portuguese, because «the Portuguese are good, they will
forgive you as they forgave me»; «the Portuguese are strong,
FRELIMO can do nothing against them)); «You are suffering
because of the war - do as I did, come to the Portuguese and
you will have food, clothes, money and peace)). In the case
of Lazaro, it was not necessary for our political commissars
to explain to the people: Lazaro was well known by everybody, especially by the population of Cabo Delgado, by the
activities of exploitation which he exercised while he was
provincial secretary there.
Radio continues to be the principal means of propaganda
used by the colonialists against us.
FRELIMO has a radio programme for Mozambique transmitted through the External Services of Radio Tanzania
everyday (for 45 minutes). In our broadcasts made in Mozam-